It is extremely unlikely for identical twins, let alone an Ethiopian ‘diplomat’ and a British born South African scholar who have never met in their entire lives, to write a 15-page long academic paper in exactly the same way, using the same language, words, sentences, paragraphs, data, titles…commas and full-stops. It may be a miracle but the impossible has happened.
A couple of days ago, someone sent out an email that suggested that Mr. Tesfaye Habisso, former high-ranking official and Ethiopian Ambassador to Uganda and South Africa under the Meles regime, may have committed plagiarism.
As a journalist, I decided to investigate the veracity of the allegation and get to the bottom of this bizarre incidence. Despite the fact that Mr. Habisso is widely known as one of the most dubious apologists of the tyrannical regime in Ethiopia, he always tried to hide behind intellectual sophistry. In the past few years, he has graced pro-tyranny websites such as Aigaforum, Tigray Online and Ethiopia First. Whatever the case may be, before claiming that anyone has committed such a despicable act of intellectual piracy, facts must be established. The first task is to compare the two papers word by word, sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph. They are almost identical! There isn’t a shadow of doubt that Dr. Colin Darcch is the author of the scholarly paper entitled, “The Ethiopian Student Movement in the Struggle against Imperialism, 1960-1974.”
After thoroughly investigating the case,
I contacted both authors who incidentally happened to write an identical
academic paper on the Ethiopian student movement.
The first
author, Dr. Colin Darch, was born and educated in
England. According to his Linkedin profile, he got a
Bachelor of Arts degree in English studies at Oxford University in 1965. In
1994 he went to the United States where he obtained the Associate of the
Library Association (ALA) from Northwestern Polytechnic School of
Librarianship. He received his Ph.D. from University of Bradford, England, in
Social and Economic Analysis. Currently a senior information specialist at the
University of Cape Town, South Africa, where he is a
naturalized citizen; he describes himself as: “South African academic
librarian, lecturer and researcher with extensive experience in African
countries and in Brazil.” In addition to his mother tongue, English, he
speaks Portuguese and Russian. He is interested in copyright, intellectual
property and the sociology of information access rights in the South. He has
written extensively on a variety of issues and authored a few books including A Soviet View of Africa.
I emailed
Dr. Darch a brief note and the online links of both
academic papers. I wanted to know whether the paper in question was authored by
him or Ambassador Habisso. He replied quickly, in
less than two hours. He wrote:
Dear AtoAbebe,
How fascinating. I am the only author of the paper. I worked in Ethiopia, at
the then Haile Sellassie I University, as Associate
University Librarian, from 1970 to 1974, and experienced the events on campus
during that period. I then moved to the University of Dar es
Salaam and wrote the paper in question for the East African Social Sciences
conference, which in those years rotated around Nairobi, Kampala and Dar es Salaam. Somewhere I still have the original mimeo copy
of the paper, which was hard to scan and full of typographical mistakes. AtoTesfaye – who is completely
unknown to me – is therefore guilty of plagiarism [emphasis mine].
Incidentally, I wonder if AtoTesfaye
knows Russian – I mention several Russian sources specifically, and am the
author of the book A Soviet View of Africa, which is a study of Tsarist and
Soviet writings on the Horn of Africa. I should be interested to hear what AtoTesfaye has to say for
himself.
Please keep in touch, and thanks for the heads-up.
The note
from the publisher reads: “This is a document that is written
with a lot of love, care and it is based on references and facts. I suggest
everyone to read it and remember how Ethiopia is freed from a feudal monarchy
and imperialism. Read more and pass it over to friends.”
Mr.
Habisso came to public prominence in 1991. He was one of the ethnic party
leaders that joined the fanfare of the TPLF-led transitional government. A
founder of the Kenbata People’s Congress, he was appointed Secretary
General of the Council of Representatives of the Transitional Government of
Ethiopia (1991-1994).
In an
interview with a blog, Hambaricho,
Mr. Tesfaye Habisso said that he was born and raised in Begedamo, Kembata,
which is located in Southern Ethiopia. According to his own account, he was a
student at the then Haile Selassie I University from 1965 to 1969.
By the
time Dr. Darch got employed at the same university in 1971, Mr. Habisso had
already left college and joined civil service. One of the most important
sentences Mr. Habisso redacted from Dr. Darch’s paper says: “The
present writer was employed at the university between February 1971 and March
1975, and was an eyewitness to many of the events described between these
dates.”
I
contacted both writers separately. The only thing I wanted from Mr. Habisso was
a confirmation from him that he was indeed the author of the scholarly paper in
question. I emailed him the following:
Dear Mr.
Habisso, I read your fascinating paper, “The Ethiopian Student Movement
and the Struggle against Feudal Monarchy and Imperialism.” It is
wonderfully written and very engaging. I should thank you for preserving and
capturing this momentous piece of our history. Thank you so much again.
Best regards
Abebe
I was
certain that Mr. Habisso would not reply at all. But he proved me wrong with a
quick reply.
Dear Abebe,
Great thanks for your kind remarks. We cannot, and should not, forget the
immense sacrifices of the Ethiopian students of the yesteryears who selflessly
and relentlessly struggled to realize a better livable Ethiopia for succeeding
generations. Thanks again. Stay well.
Tesfaye Habisso
I wanted
to stretch the conversation further before I posed the most difficult question.
And yet, my second email was enough to indicate the pun in the content. I
suggested to him that he should expand on his paper and make it a book.
Dear Mr.
Tesfaye, Thank you so much for your reply. Your scholarly paper, Ethiopian
Student Movement and the Struggle against Feudal Monarchy and Imperialism
covers the time between 1960 to 1974. I wish you would
also write the second sequel, from1974 to 1991. In fact, if you also write the
third part from 1991 to date, it can definitely make a great book. What do you
think?
Thank you so much again for this enlightening work.
Best regards
Abebe
To my
surprise, Mr. Habisso tried not to sound suspicious given the fact that he only
changed the name of the real author and took ownership of Dr. Darch’s
work. He replied:
That is a
great idea that requires a great research endeavour but worth taking the
initiative. Let me reflect upon it for a while. Thanks for the novel idea and
interest. Bye
What I was
certain was the fact that Mr. Habisso has indeed contributed three words,
“feudal monarchy and”, to the original title. That is the most
noticeable contribution he has made to the entire academic paper, not to mention
his name in the byline.
As a
matter of fact, Mr. Habisso has also redacted three significant sentences that
could have given clues to readers as to the identity of the real author.
Another conspicuous feature of Mr. Habisso’s paper is that EPRDF-Supporters
Forum has delightfully embraced and endorsed the stolen intellectual
property.At the bottom of every
page, it reads, “Copyright 2008-2009. All rights reserved.” By
doing so, EPRDF has given copyright protection to Mr. Habisso’s
“work”. Moreover, the flags of the nine ethnic “federal
states” have been watermarked on the pages. As weird as the whole
travesty, the nine federal states seem to have put their seal of approval by
waving their flags on Mr. Habisso’s “intellectual property”.
Unlike the
original copy, Mr. Habisso’s paper is not 15-page long but contains 21
pages. This is not because Mr. Habisso contributed a few more sentences,
paragraphs or ideas. He added almost nothing, not a single sentence. He just
took ownership of the whole thing without compromising its originality. To
their credit, the publishers and the new author, His Excellency Mr. Ambassador
Tesfaye Habisso, reformatted the paper and changed the font size, maybe to make
it appear more visible and appealing to the eye.
Dr. Darch
clearly stated right below the title when and where the academic paper was
presented. Mr. Habisso thought that this sentence was totally unnecessary as he
did not make an effort to travel all the way to Tanzania in 1979 to present and
discuss his paper with other intellectuals from East Africa Universities. The
smart diplomat got a tech-savvy shortcut, finished the hack job in a few
minutes and sent his paper electronically to his masters at Aigaforum and
EPRDF. Mr. Habisso performed his magic from the comfort of his armchair.
In the
first paragraph, Dr. Darch wrote:
“Until
1974 radical commentators did not generally regard Ethiopia as an important
arena in the struggle against repression, backwardness and neo-colonialism. For
one thing, the old regime was very successful at projecting a progressive image
abroad. The Emperor’s self-assumed role as heroic resister against
Fascism, supporter of liberation movements, patron of the OAU and the United
Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and benevolent ruler of his people was
shown to have been an anomaly only by the popular revolt of 1974. The attempted
cover-up of the famine in Wollo Province at a time when the old regime was
prepared to spend millions of Ethiopian dollars on the showcase celebrations of
the OAU’s tenth anniversary revealed the bankruptcy of the Ethiopian
political system to the world, and contributed to the overthrow of the imperial
Ethiopian government in a step-by-step army coup that lasted from February to
September. The degeneracy of the Ethiopian land-owning and capitalist class was
so advanced that the Provisional Military Administrative Council (the Dergue)
was able to edge Haile Sellassie from his throne with startling ease, and with
virtually no organized opposition. Much of the credit for the anti-monarchic
and anti-feudal popular mood that made this coup possible must go to the
Ethiopian student movement, which had been in the vanguard of the struggle for
a progressive Ethiopia for fifteen years.”
There is
no need of repeating what the second scholar, H.E Mr. Tesfaye Habisso, has
written in his academic paper simply because it is the same thing from start to
finish. Let us, however, examine a very interesting bibliographic note Mr.
Habisso wrote:
“Most
of the economic data in this study have been drwan[sic] from Assefa Bequele and
Eshetu Chole (A profile of the Ethiopian economy [Addis Ababa: Oxford
University Press, 1969]), which paints a bleak picture of the situation in the
early 1960s. Data on education have also been taken from the Ministry of
Information pamphlet Ethiopia today: education (Addis Ababa, 1973). It is fair
to assume that the Ministry’s enrolment figures were exaggerated for
propaganda purposes, but they were still so low that comment is superfluous.
“I have
in addition used several documents issued by the former Haile Sellassie I
University, including A forward look: a special report from the president
(Addis Ababa, 1969); Office of the Registrar, Student data 1963/4-1973/4 (Addis
Ababa, s.d.); The President’s Report (Addis Ababa, annual); and a series
of circulars, memoranda and resolutions issued by the university authorities,
by various faculty bodies, and by USUAA from 1969 to 1974. My descriptions of
events from 1971 to 1974 are also based on personal observation and on
conversations with eye-witnesses.”
That is
exactly what Dr. Darch also penned in his paper. That means the two authors
were doing the same thing at Haile Sellassie I University in the 1970s despite
the fact that Mr. Habisso left the university in 1969. Here is what Dr. Darch’spaper
says: “Most of the economic data in this study have been drwan
from Assefa Bequele and Eshetu Chole (A profile of the Ethiopian economy [Addis
Ababa: Oxford University Press, 1969]), which paints a bleak picture of the
situation in the early 1960s….” Everything is the same including
the spelling mistake. Both of them have spelt drawn as “drwan.”
Bekele is not also spelt in the usual Ethiopian way. It is a truly amazing
coincidence!
After
examining the two papers, I have concluded that H.E. Mr. Tesfaye Habisso did
not properly read Dr. Darch’s paper, let alone taking part in the
researching and writing process, which is obviously a daunting task. What Mr.
Habisso did was recklessly and willfully copied the whole write-up, just like a
photocopy machine, and then changed the byline from “Colin Darch”
to “Tesfaye Habisso”. He should have done a much smarter job than
stealing an honest account of the Ethiopian student movement by a foreign
scholar.
When Hambaricho blog pressed Mr. Habisso to
give an honest answer on the dubious death of his Kembata People’s
Congress, he was very incensed. “What I mentioned to you regarding the
KPC is what I know and only what I know, no
politicking, no diplomatic niceties. If you have any other more reliable source
of information, then, you stick to it but never question my integrity and
honesty, please. OK?”
Ok! But
H.E Mr. Ambassador Tesfaye Habisso should now stand up to defend his scholarly
thesis, which he boldly and shamelessly posted on the World Wide Web as his
own. What is at stake is his integrity and honesty.
When the
TPLF declared 99.6 percent election victory last year, Mr. Habisso came out to
endorse the election result in its entirety despite the fact that honest foreign
observers rejected it as a tyrannical farce. Despite all that, Mr. Habisso
wrote: “The victory was comprehensive and decisive resulting in the
largest electoral margin in Ethiopia’s election history since its
transition to a democratic political system in 1991.”
Mr.
Habisso’s 99.6 percent plagiarism is certainly as fraudulent as
EPRDF’s 99.6 election victory. As the old African adage goes – the
witness of a rat is another rat.
—-
Related
links
Tesfaye
Habisso, The Ethiopian Student Movement and the
Struggle Against the Feudal Monarchy and Imperialism, 1960-1974.
